NSW police target crooked officers

SYDNEY - The New South Wales Government has admitted that more than 50 police officers are facing dismissal for breaking the law, but says it is evidence that efforts to clean up the force are working.

Senior police also defended the service's corruption record following the revelations that 56 police officers were facing a string of charges including kidnap, fraud, rape, break and enter, and drink driving.

Acting NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said through a spokeswoman that the revelations were a positive illustration of the police force's changing culture. "Younger police aren't tolerating corruption from their colleagues, they're dobbing their colleagues in, which is pretty good from a police culture point of view," she said.

Premier Bob Carr said the force was geared more than ever towards stamping out corruption and it was unlikely police would be damaged by the revelations.

"What we do these days is expose criminal behaviour, we hold police accountable and we drive it out of the force," Carr said. "What happened in the past before the reforms we introduced out of the police royal commission was that this stuff rolled on year after year unaddressed."

Police were now subject to drug and alcohol and integrity testing, he said.

Since January 2003, 21 police had been removed from duty for a variety of misbehaviour, some of it criminal, Carr said.

NSW Police Association (NSWPA) president Bob Pritchard said it was concerning if any officer was charged with a criminal offence, but the latest revelations applied to just over 50 out of more than 15,000 police who were doing a good job.

- AAP